"Excitement is certainly one word for it," she nodded. "With a little luck, I'll have greater stories to regale you with when next we return to port. Perhaps I'll even have a reason for you to send those gift boxes to the Japanese," she grinned.

"Uncultured swine," she said with distaste. "Why be human if you embrace a code that purges the humanity from you, excuses any action. They call us monsters and lack our own humanity." She shook her head and then her eyes turned sly. "Captain Porras has given satisfaction?"

Aerion hesitated briefly. It always took her a moment to recall just how casually the Palto Riagans spoke of sex, especially after a long tour. She smiled pleasantly, and while she tried to keep her full reaction to herself, there would be no hiding certain things from either her or the man in question. "His services have been invaluable on all fronts."

"Excellent," she nodded. "Perhaps We need to view and critique his services," she pondered. "Probably sooner rather than later. So, have you ever met a Lycan? You'll have what they tell Us is a short platoon of them, their lieutenant is around here somewhere, you can speak with her, or I can see about more direct knowledge." She waved her hand as her thoughts drifted again. "How was your first taste of aerial combat?"

"Thus far, I much prefer naval," she answered dryly. "Fewer directions to watch and less to go catastrophically wrong. Though, one does have to appreciate the greater freedom to decimate ones enemies," she smiled. "I think my crew is becoming dangerously fond of sneaking in from above and unleashing a rain of hell, especially on the Germans." It was a pastime she could get behind.

"Give Us simple human savagery over duplicity every time," she smiled softly. "We predict a savage campaign, and to face that we've given you claw and fang. Guns and tactics We leave to you. Who is your greatest threat, the Japanese or the Germans?" She pondered a moment. "One wonders why bastards always work for empires. Have you noticed this? Empires are bad in every story."

"Empires reward those who get things done, and bastards are the best at that." She did think on the question, though. They were evenly matched in her mind at first, but then differences came out. If the Japanese were burned too badly, they would pull their hand back and reconsider their course of action. The Germans, however, would march on through the fire to reach their goal, no matter the losses. And as long as she had enemies in the old land, they would actively hunt her.

They hadn't confirmed Rall's death, either, and he didn't have to good grace to politely die with his ship. "Japan will play quiet games for now, but Germany is bleeding and angry and doesn't know when to admit defeat. My defeat is as much a tactical advantage as it is a moral victory. And Germans hold a long grudge."

"Excellent, you have given it thought, as we suspected," she paused and thought for a moment. "The world is a dangerous place, and each of our nations has only one ally upon whom we may trust. The Americans and British may smile at us now, but smiles on nations are like those of courtesans. You pay to see it."

"My Queen," her Chancellor carefully interrupted. "Others wait..."

"And shall continue to do so until we deign otherwise," she replied curtly. "So, Commodore, you shall meet a few of our Lycan troops, is there any other you'd care to meet? We shall be happy to facilitate any meetings you should desire, or grant a private audience?"

[smg id=1981 align=left width=150]"Exercise due caution, even here in our own court we are confronted with agents of many enemies, declared and undeclared. Their lives are forfeit when they are found, but that may be scant comfort to you." She spoke as she wrote on a slip of paper. "Lieutenant Candida Twigg of my Royal Marines is now assigned to your crew and she waits without to explain the capabilities of her troops, and can arrange demonstrations as you like. This," she passed over the paper, "Is a gentleman that can demonstrate even more for you."

She accepted the paper without comment, and took the dismissal for what it was. Though Aerion doubted she'd be calling on the 'gentleman' at any point, it did give her a certain pleasure to slip it into her breast pocket, and to know that Porras saw her do so.

Outside the audience chamber, the Commodore greeted her new Lieutenant with a handshake that was professionally firm, but no more. It would be silly trying to match grips with a lycan. "I admit, Lieutenant, that I have heard very little about your team, but you come highly recommended. You are welcome on my ship, and I look forward to seeing what you can do."

Lieutenant Candida Twigg of Her Majesty's Royal Marines wasn't quite what anyone expected. She was tall, six feet in her stocking feet, and whippet thin; but, her muscle and bone was very dense, making her weigh as much as a muscular man of her own height. Her hair was black and pulled back tight into a bun, leaving pale green eyes regarding Aerion from tanned and flawless skin.

"Commodore," she greeted her respectfully, but not saluting with marine tradition of not saluting indoors. "I have the honor to command First Squad, First Platoon, Company A, First Marine Aerial Batallion," She paused. "And so on, We're trained for standard marine operations and have served in boarding parties and land engagements and have trained extensively in aerial operations. An Aerial Squad consists of twenty marines and one officer, making four fire teams and a heavy weapon team. We're qualified in land, sea, mountain, desert and aerial operations and every member of the team is a rated sniper, meaning ranges out to one thousand yards. We're all combat veterans and we're all volunteers. Questions, Ma'am?"

"Of course," she nodded. "With the parachutes we can jump at altitudes between five hundred feet and even above twenty thousand, with precautions of course. In a standard jump we tailor our gear load to our mission, but we're limited in weight so we're lightly armed and supplied most of the time. We can used gear duffels with their own chutes as well to add more gear and supplies. Aiming them is still more of an art than a science, but we've all made over fifty jumps, and only lost a dozen of us in training, so we're getting better and tweaking the chutes as well."

A brow arched. Only a dozen deaths? Then again, they were talking about leaping from a perfectly good airship with nothing but a bag of silk. Aerion motioned for them to walk and talk. As little as she wanted to return to the docks and the awaiting company of the Japanese ambassador, even she didn't like to spend too long holed up in the palace of 'spooks'.

"There's little enough for marines to do on airships compared to the old days. Even on sea, the increased armor and firepower are making the old ways obsolete. But you tell me you've trained in aerial operations. So tell me, Lieutenant, what exactly your briefing has you prepared to carry out. Are you telling me you and yours are trained to jump to enemy vessels to conduct operations?"

"We'll stay busy," she promised. "First of all we guard the Empress when she's moored. We provide security on board. We're qualified aerial gunners and can repair the ordinance. We can drop onto land, air and sea targets to neutralize them, we've all done real land and sea operations but we've only practiced airship boardings so far. We have a qualified medic, and have basic battle damage skills. You don't have the capacity to carry dead weight, so we train to fit in where we can."

"Belle of the brawl, perhaps," Twigg's smile was the tiniest bit evil. "I don't often dance with human boys, they're so fragile." She thought for a moment as they walked. "No need to worry though, we've served with squishies before." He almost giggled at that. "Hopefully we can capture an airship for training soon, we have played with our own a bit, but there's a problem, we can't exercise our full range of skills on something we have to be careful with, and we don't have enough of our own gasbags to risk them."

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